A wealthy married man begins an affair with a woman from Italy, but their relationship becomes complicated when she reveals she’s pregnant. Fearing for his marriage and reputation, he decides to handle the matter quietly.
He offers her a large sum of money to return to Italy and give birth privately, promising to support the child financially “as long as she agrees to raise the child quietly and away from the public eye.”
The woman accepts but asks how to inform him when the baby is born. To keep things discreet, he instructs her to send a postcard with one coded word: “Spaghetti.” It would be their secret signal that the child has been born.
Months later, after a business trip, the man comes home to find his wife holding a postcard from Italy. She looks puzzled by the message that simply reads “Spaghetti.”
The story ends ironically, as the man realizes that his own secret code has betrayed him — leaving readers to imagine the fallout of his exposed affair.
